Somewhere in Paris
by quintessentialy
Summary: After Marinette and Adrien face the Horrificator, she can't stop thinking about their almost kiss.
Marinette laid on her chaise in her room, staring down at her lap – she couldn't stop thinking about nearly kissing Adrien earlier that day, and trying to sketch to keep her mind off the subject had proved to be failure. She opted instead to sit and twiddle her thumbs, chew on her lip, and let herself suffer in a whirl of continuous regret. If she'd kissed him in that room, would she have regretted it? Did Chloe stop her from doing something she'd regret – how did Adrien feel about the subject? Had he wanted to –

She shook the possibility from her mind quickly. He had nothing but a friendly attraction to her, didn't he? She groaned and curled up, covering her eyes with her hands. It would usually be so easy to talk to Alya about this, but she felt like if she did then Alya would simply encourage her to keep going for him but if he wasn't interested then what was the point? Sure, he's the most perfect boy in the world, not to mention he's kind and sweet and doesn't laugh along with Chloe whenever she gets made fun of and – Marinette groaned again. She was hopeless.

Her phone chimed and she uncovered her face, reaching for it. A text from Adrien, to her heart-stopping surprise. She opened it quickly: _Hey, Marinette – do you want to meet me in the park?_ Her eyes widened and she sat up quickly, glancing around her room for a moment – was this a dream? A joke?

 _What for?_ She texted back, pressing her lips together and standing up, walking toward her window. It was getting dark outside; she'd have to sneak past her parents to get out of the house, which was all too risky.

 _I need to talk to you._ He replied, and she pressed her face against the cool glass of the window. This had to be a dream.

 _It's kinda late._ She texted back quickly. She turned around and started searching around for her bag.

 _Please?_ His response made her phone sing and she sighed, smiling slightly as she slung her bag over her shoulder.

 _I'm headed there now_. She answered, turning and heading for the door.

Adrien was already sitting on a bench when she arrived, staring up at the statue of Cat Noir and Ladybug. Marinette sat down next to him, setting her bag beside her. She left space between them – if she was too close she felt her heart might burst.

"Hey." He said, breaking his gaze from the statue to turn toward her, smiling kindly, "That was crazy today, wasn't it? With the movie and all –"

"Oh, yeah. Totally crazy." She replied, laughing nervously, "Like – whoo! What a wild time, right? Like so crazy." She rambled, turning her eyes away, ' _Oh my god Marinette shut up shut up shut up',_ she thought.

"We almost kissed." He blurted out, and she turned toward him quickly – he was blushing now, unlike him, now less calm, cool, and collected than she had ever seen him be before. "I wanted to talk to you about that."

"What's there to talk about?" She questioned, eyebrows raising, "I mean, we didn't – your, like – girlfriend, or whatever, busted in…"

"Chloe isn't my girlfriend." Adrien sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "Super not my girlfriend. We're just – friends."

"Really flirty friends." Marinette shot back, biting down on her tongue afterwards.

" _She's_ really flirty, I'm not." He retorted, and she huffed slightly, "Does it bother you?"

"What?"

"I don't know, I just – I felt like you wanted to kiss me today and I kind of wanted to kiss you."

"You what?" Marinette mumbled, eyes widening as she stared at him – it was then that her senses became overloaded. She was much closer to him than before (had he moved closer or was it her fault entirely?) and their hands were overlapping on the bench. Adrien's eyes had never looked greener and she felt like she was laying in them – laying in the greenest grass she had ever seen, the hot summer air blowing across her skin, the sun burning down onto her body.

"I like you." He smiled, and Marinette's heart burst, and it occurred to her in that moment that she could have died right there on the bench and she would have died happy.

"I like you! I mean, I kind of like you, like only a little bit, just a little crush – but like, I really like you. I've liked you for a really long time and I – I really wanted to kiss you today. I just didn't want to kiss you like that, you know? A forced kiss – I wanted it to be natural and because you wanted to –"

"I want to."

"Okay, then –"

Adrien leaned forward and kissed Marinette, one of his hands gripping hers while the other slid onto her cheek. She fumbled with one of her hands before reaching for his shirt, pulling him closer. He slipped his arm around her waist and she melted into his arms, into the kiss, into everything. When he pulled away, she stared at him, lips numb and heart beating so fast she felt like she was dying –

She shot up on the chaise, looking around her bedroom. It was way past midnight, with her sketching pad on her lap, a couple pages crumpled. She rubbed at her eyes and reached for her phone – no new messages.

She felt tears well up in her eyes and she sniffed, pulling a blanket over herself. It seemed too good to be true – Adrien wanting to kiss her, telling her he liked her. It would always be too good to be true. She stood up, wrapping the blanket tightly around herself and walking to the rooftop. She sat and then laid down there, the cold wind comforting her. She laid her blanket over herself and stared up at the stars, counting them until she felt her tears stop flowing.

Somewhere in the streets of Paris, Adrien looked at the same stars. He thought of Marinette and he thought about their near-kiss that day – and then he thought about Ladybug and how they looked kind of similar and how that might be why he liked Marinette a little more than he thought he should.


End file.
